This Q&A is a bit different from the previous ones since I included several answers that were given directly on the boards. From the time when the first Q&A popped up about 1 year ago until now, we have provided more and more answers on the forum and want to focus on this way of interacting with you, as answering on the board provide more responsiveness to your concerns. Of course, we will never be able to answer all the questions, but we will do our best!

As a result, the Q&A special thread won't be needed anymore, as the whole forum could be used to ask questions. I will keep releasing Q&A and updating the Forum Watch, though. While the latter allows you to read anything we post, the Q&A will sort and archive important answers, which will be translated in the three communities' languages.

[ Discuss it! ]

1) I’d like to know if it’s possible to create a new way to quit the game. Indeed, when a player owns several avatars, he must quit the game and log back in… Would it be possible to get a button allowing to change avatar without having to log out completely? [Submitted by 01ig020 (FR)]

Yes, we’re planning to add a button to be able to come back to the character selection window. It should appear next to the “quit game” button when quitting the game. As we wish to add it in the same time as the release of the Ring, we’re working on it right now. However, we encountered some issues here that prevent us from adding that button. At this stage, they haven’t been solved yet, so we aren’t sure we could add it on time for the Ring release.

2) Is there a particular reason why the face animations have not yet been implemented? Because technically they're already implemented I think - You can see them during the character creation process and they look beautiful too! [Submitted by acridiel (DE)]

The animation system is able to handle them, but the game is not. A very specific code has been used for the facial animations from the character creation interface, which cannot be used for the game itself. Coding would be needed in order to enable them in game.

3) What is the logic behind the access to teleporter pacts for neutral people? Some areas have both TPs available, others only have one, and without trying we cannot know which one is which… I heard there was some logic… Would it be possible to know more about it? Submitted by scalfr (FR)]

The choice of TPs for neutral people follows gameplay logic. There are 87 teleportation altars on Atys. We have tried to share out accesses so that each “side” might use roughly half of the TPs. It is to be noted that neutral characters have a slight advantage as concerns the Spires, for 9 regions will remain accessible to them whatever the Spire built there. But let's not wander off the point...

Concerning neutral characters, had we made both TPs accessible for each region, even putting the Prime Roots and Regions 250 aside, they would have had access to more TPs than the Kamists or Karavaneers. For some regions, therefore, we excluded either the Karavan TP or the Kami TP.

Certain regions, before the patch 110 (Chapter III) only had one altar, which most of the time was the one chosen for neutral characters. It is thus a seniority choice. Those are the Karavan altars of the Upper Bog and the Fount; and the Kami altars of Haven of Purity and Oflovak’s Oasis. For the other regions, the TPs have been chosen “randomly” so that in total, there might be about as many available Karavan TPs as Kami TPs.

I posted, a while ago now, a list of active altars for neutral characters. But finding them on one's own necessarily adds some spice to the game...

4) Why can’t there be unlimited landmarks? Why can we only enter A to Z and numbers to landmarks? [Submitted by blaah (EN)]

The current system is not offering a common pile of N landmarks we can use where we want on the whole Atys, but it limits the available quantity to a certain amount per map (Aeden Aqueous, Nexus, Under Spring…). A common pile for the whole world with – for example – 2000 available landmarks would certainly be more useful.

The limitation of the number of flags is due to its original conception. We first added that feature simply to allow marking some useful positions on the map. When testing the foraging skill, we noticed the landmark system was also very useful to mark materials deposits. So we increased the number of flags to its maximum within the technical limits of the current system. It wasn’t enough, but allowing more wasn’t as easy as changing a number in a config file anymore; the code of the landmarks system would need to be changed to be able to handle more landmarks. Why only A to Z and numbers? Because it was a lot quicker to code this way.

Both these points could benefit from a bit of polishing, as well as such other “small” features. This is the kind of improvement we would like to start working on once we’re done with the last features currently in pipe (see answer #16).

5) Will there ever be supreme mats available in regions other than PR and Nexus? Like secret kami or better a jungle source? [Submitted by bgraz (EN)]

They are meant to be and stay rare, so these supreme mats won’t be available anywhere else. However, new spots might appear in the future.

6) Will XP crystals, crafting tools, or OP mats ever be able to be sold on an open market? [Submitted by bgraz (EN)]

One day, maybe. :) The Outposts as they are now are the “first version”. We haven’t included all what we had in mind here, to get the patch ready on time. Selling materials and crystals on the market is one of the additional features we wish to add later.

7) As concerns *economy*, there again the answer provided to the fears expressed as regards its blatant imbalance (the dapper being now worth nothing, (...) tremendous accumulated fortunes...) lies only in the cost generated by the upcoming outposts. (...) Is a global reshaping of the economic system (question of the merchants, storage, possible expenses, evolution of crafting, all of those already largely mentioned) envisaged? [Submitted by raegil (FR)]

We are aware of the economy issues that exist in Ryzom. We have some changes in mind to improve it, which would require a lot of time and resources though. Given the fact we are currently busy with other consequent works and the Ring (see answer #16), it’s not yet possible to focus on that issue. But, as we wish to improve it in the future, this feature could be scheduled on the long term when we will be improving some of the elements currently in game.

8) Release Notes: “Mektoubs won't be exchangeable anymore for the time being” Lol... that's not a change. [Submitted by katriell (EN)] (Answered on the board)

Indeed; in fact mektoubs aren't exchangeable anymore since the from December 5th, which was a hotfix against servers crashes caused by XP crystals. This is a side effect that we discovered recently. It's a bug, added since then to our todo list.

We chose to inform you about this change in the release note of the patch 118 rather than telling nothing.

9) Can you please explain how healing in FvF/GvG/PvP regions is supposed to work? [Submitted by thlau (EN)]

Currently there is clearly a malfunction in the healing possibilities. It’s not working as it’s supposed to. This is due to some bad management of the different “kinds” of PvP by the game. As we understand how this is an annoying bug, it is among our priorities. Given the fact that the dev team is already busy with a few projects (see answer #16), we can’t give a more accurate date for a heal patch than “in the mid-term” yet, though.

10) [ Spires ] “Teleportation tickets: It is impossible to use TP tickets when their destination is an area owned by an opposing faction. It is possible to use TP tickets in neutral areas, areas controlled by one’s faction, or in capitals.” Does this mean:
a) all altars off the faction that is in opposition to the owner of the region will not work. Or
b) if my personal allegiance is opposed to the owner of the region, I will not be able to teleport there. [Submitted by thlau (EN)]

The good answer is b).

I’ll give an example: you are pro-karavan (you did the ritual). The Fyros region “Frahar Towers” belongs to the Kamis (there is a kami Spire). You cannot teleport there. To go there, you would have to teleport to another region, then run to this region. Once here though, you can:
- use any karavan ticket to port elsewhere in a karavan, neutral region, or capital;
- buy Frahar Towers karavan tickets.
This is mainly to prevent the enemy from attacking too easily a Spire.

11) Rites: have you abandoned them? Will we ever see any more? [Submitted by bendrunk (EN)]

To give a short answer: rites are still on standby.
Creating new rites and debugging existing ones require a lot of work (level design, rewards creation, code, texts translation, tests, etc.). Given this important state of things, we’ve chosen to focus on features that will have a longer impact for most of the players in game, rather than spending many weeks/months on a system that will be doable only once by a given player.

We all hope to see more rites in game of course, that’s why we don’t want to abandon them. When we will start working on them though, we will hardly be able to do anything else in the meantime. We currently have a long list of things to do already, that’s why the rites are staying on standby, until further notice.

As a side note, the few rites currently on the Advanced Test Server are not working properly, that’s why they aren’t in game yet.

12) What ever happened with the Atys Rangers and the kitin threat? [Submitted by bgraz (EN)]

Kitins are hardly predictable and threats can take various forms. Lately, the Atys Rangers and the Kitins had two encounters during which the most courageous homins could choose to join them in their fight (killing the Kizarak that had taken up residence in Desert Stock on January 15, and protecting Pyr and the Imperial Dunes from an invasion on February 4).

The Rangers are those always keeping a careful eye on their main enemy, the Kitins, to be ready to notice any abnormal behavior and to find ways to defeat them. Their activities involve investigation as well as organization of open battles. Watch out for the signs; the Rangers could most likely call for help again. Homins are never enough when it comes to drive Kitins back!

13) Back in the summer, Nevrax released a whole slew of proposed title changes. Since then, there has been no mention as to when, or even if, they are going to be implemented. Any word on if they're still planning on changing them? [Submitted by totnkopf (EN)]

The new list of titles, as it is now after integrating the propositions on the boards, is still not fully satisfying. Some titles still don’t fit well, and too many skills also have a not-so-nice title, like, for example, the 201 titles using the vocabulary of Ryzom. To be able to add them without “nerfing” too much (some current 201 titles sound good), we agreed we would need to at least introduce the specific background for these titles and eventually introduce them with an event in game. And we cannot just replace just a few titles; as the change is global, titles need to be all changed in the same time, for better coherence.

So, as we feel we haven't found a satisfactory solution on the titles yet, instead of trying to force it through as is, we have postponed the change until we can get it right.

14) [ R² ] [1] The amount of entities, characters, NPC will be limited when you create a scenario. This has been done in order to save server space. [2] Players will be able to buy some server space in order to preserve their content permanently, so the content the player has created will be available even if the player logs off. (…)
[3] Will the players have the option to buy additional server space in order to put more entities on a single map then you are allowed to by default (e.g.: for free)? [Submitted by mrozzy (EN)]

There are several questions here, so I've split my answer:

[1] True, there has to be a limit on the number of entities you can add in a scenario at a given time, otherwise the servers would quickly collapse. :) Currently, on the Alpha Test, there is a limit of 50 entities with the ability to change the entities dynamically through acts.

For example, if your scenario is the rescue of a captive princess surrounded by mean kitins, you may want to use the following entities: 10 buildings, 50 Kitins, 15 villagers, and a princess. It exceeds the 50 entities limit, so you can spread them between different acts, to always have less than 50 simultaneous entities, but still use 76 entities in total. It could give:

- 1st act (Introduction): 10 buildings, 15 villagers, 1 princess.
- 2nd act (Kitin raid): 10 buildings, 15 villagers, 1 princess, 20 Kitins.
- 3rd act (Rescue mission): 10 buildings, 5 villagers, 1 princess, 30 Kitins.

However, the Alpha tests have shown that 50 is often insufficient to build a more elaborate scenario, so we'll raise this limit significantly. The current numbers we have in mind is 100 permanent entities (buildings or mobs/NPCs which are present in all acts) and 100 mobs/NPCs (can be different in each act).

Currently, buildings are always permanent content.

[2] What you refer to here is the Outlands. While Adventures are instantiated scenarios which only last for as long as the scenario runs, Outlands are persistent areas, pretty much like the rest of Atys. Unlike the rest of the Ring which is free, they will be available for renting due to the extra server resources permanent territories require (the monthly fee should be low, somewhere around 5 euros).

[3] Not for the adventures, but we will consider it for the Outlands if the need arises.

15) Now that the patching is done, can anyone shed any light on that yubo xp exploit? I would quite like to know how people got to level 250 mage in 2 mins! (gross exaggeration I know) [Submitted by alibasil (EN)] (Answered on the board)

That exploit (corrected last month) happened when your character was above a certain level, and fighting low levels creatures. By using a combination of specific spells and enchantment, you could gain 3000 XP, which you should have not been able to normally at the level of your character.

16) Well, since the outposts patch, no news about the future... The Ring seems to be developing pretty well but what about the Saga??? The spires??? The Encyclopaedia??? (...) It would be nice if Nevrax could give us a prospect of development because I think some subscriptions (to come or to be renewed) depend on it. [Submitted by genepoil (FR)]

This is a question I wanted to answer, even though it didn’t appear in the Q&A thread but in a general thread. I won’t enter in details here but give a quick overview.

Currently, the devs are mainly working on the Spires, improving some of the elements of the game interface, creating some PvE content… (They also track/fix bugs/exploits of the game - the “Yubo XP exploit” being a recent example). As the Ring release time is coming closer, the devs are also helping the Ring team since a few weeks. As a result, the production for Ryzom is not stopped, but temporarily slowed down.
After the release of the Ring and the other works in progress, the devs are thinking of picking up some of the small improvements you wish to see and talk about in this thread, to eventually include them in their development schedule. Though, nothing is sure about that yet, so don’t expect these improvements at this stage.
More details about devs’ work when we will publish articles in the Player Information Section.